"We will not tolerate acts of violence against teachers. We always expect schools permanently to exclude pupils who assault teachers and for appeals panels to respect the authority of the school."

Damian Green

Shadow education secretary Damian Green added: "This is yet another case of an appeal panel undermining the authority of the head and teachers, in a way that disrupts the school.

"These panels should be scrapped, to send the clear signal that inside the school the head is in charge of discipline, and behaviour which would be unacceptable outside the school gates is unacceptable inside as well."

A Vale of Glamorgan Council spokesman said: "The education authority has
complied with the appropriate procedures in relation to this matter.

"Under current legislation, the parents of any excluded pupil have the right
to challenge such a decision through an independent appeals panel, and this was
the course adopted in this case.

"The decision to re-admit the pupil was entirely one for the panel and the
authority's responsibility has been to implement that decision, working in
conjunction with the school and the teaching unions."

Members of the NASUWT also refused to teach a boy - known as Pupil L - who returned to a Catholic school in Hertfordshire after a panel overturned his expulsion order.

'Pariah'

The House of Lords, which is due to make a judgement on the matter, heard the boy, removed for violent conduct, had been "denied a proper education".

The teenager worked alone under the supervision of a retired teacher and was allowed no contact with other children.

As a result of being treated as a "pariah" the teenager, now 17, passed only four subjects at grade A to C instead of the expected seven or eight, Cherie Booth QC told Lords Bingham, Hoffmann, Hobhouse, Scott and Walker.

The school was in breach of its obligation to reinstate Pupil L following the successful appeal by his parents, she added.

The Law Lords also heard of a similar case in London, where another boy - Pupil P - was permanently excluded from his secondary school then allowed back on appeal.

Again, members of the NASUWT refused to take the boy into their lessons.